


"In the darkness with you"

by ab2fsycho



Series: Hold My Tea and Watch This [34]
Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: F/M, M/M, but don't hurt yourselves crying, have another feelsy piece, it concerns me, or screaming for that matter, stop crying, you are all hurting yourselves crying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2013-09-04
Packaged: 2017-12-25 14:58:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/954477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ab2fsycho/pseuds/ab2fsycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pillan has been defeated, but at what cost?</p>
            </blockquote>





	"In the darkness with you"

Sera pulled the spear from her father’s gut, wincing at his lack of reaction. Barely a groan could be heard pass through his lips. Though her own abdomen was sore from having been crushed in Nidhogg’s hand, she bent over and ripped at the edge of her leather tunic. Using her claws, she tore two long, thick strips of cloth from her outfit and did her best to turn them into a tourniquet. She was more relieved than she had any right to be that he actually cried out when she pulled the strip tight around his waist. After she secured the leather, she kneeled down and hoisted him up on his feet. She whimpered through her own pain, draping her father’s arm across her shoulders and buckling under his weight. Using her free hand, she pulled her hatchet free and threw it at the ground. When it embedded in the soil, a den opened up as smoothly as one of Bunny’s tunnels. Her eyes watered as she pulled him into the safety of the air pocket she’d created and laid him on his side in the darkness. When he was safe at the back, she reached outside and pulled the hatchet free, cuing the den’s entrance to close. They were safely sealed away from Nidhogg’s flames, in the dark where Pitch could heal.

“Dad, listen to me,” she muttered, speaking to herself more than to him as she fumbled through her herbs for something that could soothe his pain. “You’re going to live. You’re going to summon your shadows and heal yourself, you got that?” He didn’t respond. There were no more groans and no more sighs. She didn’t know whether or not he was breathing, but she still pulled her herbs out and prepped them. Abandoning the mortar and pestle, she instead elected to shove the leaves into her mouth and chew. She chewed furiously, her fangs cutting into her gums. She hardly noticed. The taste was bitter, but she hardly noticed. When she spat out the mush she’d created, she began applying it to the entry and exit wounds on Pitch’s back and abdomen. Still, no reaction passed through him. She heard nothing. Her heart hammered and she was ready to scream. A line of blood began trickling out of the corner of Pitch’s mouth. “Use your powers! For God’s sake, live!” Sera did scream when her demands elicited no reaction, reaching for the area on his chest where his heart should be. If Jack’s life force was weak, Pitch’s was almost nonexistent. She could scarcely find it. He was so near death’s door that she wasn’t sure she had the energy in her to save him. She didn’t care. He couldn’t summon his shadows to save himself, so she’d do it for him. Pouring every last drop of her powers into healing him, she began coaxing his life force into motion again. The shadows seethed around them as she felt her body being drained. “I don’t care who you live for. I don’t care what you live for,” she breathed as she worked. “Me. Jack. Revenge against the Guardians. The sound of screaming kids after a night of bad dreams, I don’t care! Just. LIVE!”

Sera didn’t know whether or not her magic had been enough. She was so drained, she could only just feel her own pain anymore. She couldn’t hear the rain begin to fall above ground, or the clap of thunder. She couldn’t hear her own heartbeat. She couldn’t hear the shadows, which continued to seethe despite the loss of her contact with her father’s life force. So when she heard a sharp intake of breath, she didn’t know whether it was her drawing her last before passing out from exhaustion or Pitch coming to.



“It’s been storming for three days. The flames have died. There’s no sign of either of them,” Tooth relayed the information her fairies had brought her. While resting up and healing from the final battle, she, North, Bunny, and Sandy had tried catching up on their backlog. Well . . . Bunny really had tried. He spent as much time curled up in his bed of sweet grass as Jack did.

“No sign of plague spirits. The illnesses and disasters they caused have almost completely disappeared or stopped,” North spoke. Jamie’s and Sophie’s mom had recovered beautifully from her illness the day after Pillan’s defeat, and the two children had happily gone back home. They, of course, asked about Jack. The Guardians hadn’t known how to respond, so Sandy simply came up with the answer that he was in recovery.

North and Tooth sat beside one another, holding each other’s hands as they stared at the sleeping forms of Bunny and Jack. Jack hadn’t moved from that spot since Bunny had placed him there. They weren’t even sure Jack had woken up since . . . .

Whether Pitch was truly dead, they didn’t know. They couldn’t know until they returned to the scene themselves, and the storm that was raging over the spot was stalling them.

“Do you think he’ll be able to face it?” Tooth asked.

North shook his head. “I’m not sure. He may just want to be left alone.”

Sandy came up beside them, shaking his head. Using his sand, he told them that the last thing Jack needed was to be left alone. Tooth agreed. “Jack was alone for a long time. He wouldn’t want to be alone now.”

“Either way, we’ll have to wait till the storm settles. We’ll see if he’s willing to return then.” North’s hand tightened around Tooth’s at that. They looked down, tired and still bruised. Sandy had offered them dreamsand, but they’d refused. Despite their exhaustion, it felt wrong to sleep at a time like this.

Somehow, they’d never thought they’d end up mourning their enemy. In a way, they really weren’t. They were mourning the loss for Jack more than anything. And Jack . . . they weren’t quite sure how he and Bunny were doing.



Bunny’s Warren was too bright for Jack, but being in the darkness would only remind him that there was no one there waiting to catch him unawares. He felt stiff and empty. His eyes, face, and throat still stung from his sobs. His body felt heavy. He didn’t want to move at all. He just wanted to go on lying there.

Every now and then his eyes darted to his staff. North had placed it beside him at one point, the crook still in pieces. He didn’t have the will to fix it. He didn’t have the will to do anything.

Bunny had taken to lying beside him. It made sense. This was his bed after all. But he seemed about as listless as Jack. Somehow, Jack had neglected to recall that he wasn’t the only one who’d lost someone important. Though it had only come to their attention hours before the final battle, Jack somehow guessed that Bunny loved Sera.

Though they shared Bunny’s resting area, they never touched. They hardly acknowledged each other’s presence. Jack liked it that way. The emptiness only seemed to spread when someone touched him. When it spread, it hurt. No one truly knew how painful emptiness could be until they were consumed by it in a split second of sadness. Emptiness tended to lurk behind outcroppings of strong emotions. It waited for the explosive outburst, creeping into the cracks of any individual who simply grew catatonic from feeling too much at once. Jack was now the embodiment of emptiness. On some level, he recognized that Bunny was in a similar situation.

Jack saw the poetry in their predicament. Both had loved what some would call the ‘wrong’ people. Bunny had been interested in Jack at one point, Jack knew. His jealousy and bitterness over Jack’s relationship hadn’t simply been rooted in the ongoing combat against fear. Now they were lying together, alone and lost and somber.

For a moment, Jack found his voice again. “Here we are,” he whispered. At first, he thought he’d spoken too quietly. That was fine with him. It wasn’t like he wanted to talk anyway. He already felt the emptiness encroaching on his vocal chords again, reacting negatively to their use. The soreness in Jack’s throat was tolerable at best, but the emptiness made it worse.

“So,” Bunny said, “here we are.” He’d heard Jack. Jack didn’t know whether to feel dread or respite. If he could feel at all, that is. Silence passed between the two of them. Then Bunny spoke again, “If I’d had it my way, this would’ve been a regular occurrence for us.”

Jack didn’t look at Bunny. Though he was right in front of him, he didn’t look at him. His smirk at the comment was just as hollow as the rest of him, but it felt wrong to ignore the statement. It struck him that Bunny sounded just as empty as he did. Without thinking, Jack said, “It wouldn’t have lasted.”

Bunny shared his hollow smirk. Jack looked up long enough to realize that. “You’re probably right.”

The hollowness apparently disrupted Jack’s filter, because he found himself saying, “I couldn’t compare to her.”

Bunny’s eyes and ears twitched at the statement. “I apparently couldn’t compare to him. So I think we’re even.”

“Yeah. Even.” The conversation ended there and they returned to their silent . . . Jack didn’t know if companionship was the right word. These weren’t moments of companionship. The only thing they were silently bonding over was sorrow, so he decided that they had returned to their silent sorrow. That seemed right.



Darkness blanketed them as a storm wailed above ground. She awoke, aching and utterly fatigued from her exertion of power.

“Why?” a voice beside her asked.

She almost didn’t recognize who she was talking to. “Why what?”

“Why did you drain yourself saving me?”

There was a long pause as she assessed their state of being. Both were injured, lying in a dark den she barely remembered producing. She barely remembered anything that had happened before she’d succumbed to her own weariness. It had even occurred to her that neither of them was alive. They were simply floating in a dark space of oblivion, perhaps reliving their final moments. But the pain she felt indicated they were alive. Either that, or she was alive and hearing voices. Even so, she answered, “Because even when I hated you, you never really stopped being my father.”

The storm quieted as they lay recuperating in the dark. The thunder faded when she found his hand and held it. She was reassured when he squeezed her hand, letting her know he was indeed still there and not an apparition.



When the storm stopped, the other Guardians approached Bunny and Jack about returning to the scene of the last battle. Jack lingered longer on his response than Bunny. Jack wasn’t sure he was ready to truly realize the end. But he knew he wouldn’t forgive himself if he stayed behind.

He managed to find it in himself to stand up. His body still felt heavy and yet empty at the same time, but he was alive. That was more than he could say for Sera and . . . .

He picked up the broken pieces of his staff. Everyone took several steps back as he placed the two ends together. He wanted to shout at them that Rin was dead and that he wasn’t coming back just from Jack fixing his crook. But he didn’t. He bit his tongue, and tasted blood as he was reminded of Rin’s betrayal. On some level, he was sad that the Fearling was dead. On another, he was glad to be rid of him. His body was his, and he didn’t have to share it with anyone else. And that brought on more thoughts, memories of days in the darkness. He hadn’t realized just how much the darkness had begun to suit him. 

And though he could no longer stand it, he still longed for it.

Jack closed his eyes against the pain that the emptiness threatened to feed on. There was no determination in his mending of the staff, no desperation or true desire. He just placed the pieces together and watched the frost reconnect the ends and mend the broken. He felt his physical strength return at the mending of his tool, but the emptiness only seemed to swarm in on him more.

Actually seeing the battlefield again made his stomach tighten and sour. Part of him was thankful for the feeling. It meant he could still feel. But he also found himself cursing it. He was slightly glad for the gray skies. Brightness would only make him long for total darkness, and total darkness only made him feel more vacant. He found himself freezing the saturated ground just to make sure he still had his frost abilities. The others didn’t leave him alone. There was always someone with him, watching his reactions and making sure he didn’t snap. In his mind, he’d already snapped. All he needed now was confirmation and closure. It felt cold to look at his return that way. But he was Jack Frost. The only good he could do involved the cold.

He spent a lot of time staring at what was left of the rainforest. Burnt corpses of trees lay scattered around the landing strip Pillan had fashioned with his body. The smell of smoke lingered, but the storm that had passed over this section of the woods had almost killed the odor. There was hardly any sign at all that Sera had opened up the earth to swallow a dragon. The only evidence that remained of the battle was the ring of destroyed forest.

But there was no sign of Sera. And no sign of Pitch.

Jack felt a tear attempt to form at the corner of his eye. It froze in place. He blinked, searching for anything to focus on. Anything other than his name. Something had to distract him from the sour pit lying at the bottom of his stomach. Something had to keep him from wrapping his arms around himself and curling up once more.

“It’s like your fairies said: no sign at all,” North conferred with Tooth.

“Where could they have gone?” Jack heard her whisper back. She was trying to be quiet for his sake, he knew. He listened anyway.

“Down with the beast, I guess,” Bunny muttered brokenly. Jack shook his head, closing his eyes against the onslaught of thoughts. It didn’t help when he saw Sandy float over to a spot on the field and pick up what Jack recognized as Sera’s black dagger. It had been half-buried in the ground. The sight made Jack squeeze his eyes shut again as he unbuckled the dagger’s sheath from his upper arm and dropped it on the ground. That was where it belonged: on the ground where its former owners had perished. How apropos. The return had been a lost cause. All Jack had to do was admit what he already knew.

Pitch Black, the Nightmare King, the Boogeyman, was dead.

At least, that was the thought Jack Frost was attempting to accept when something wrapped around his ankles and dragged him down a hole. He screamed shamelessly, rolling down into a dark pit that he hadn’t realized he’d been standing in front of. The others called his name as he crashed against a dirt wall. He gasped, and found panic where nothing had been mere moments ago. He shook, the heaviness in his body suddenly gone. When the four elder Guardians loomed in the light above him, he found himself slightly worried about the situation he’d fallen into. “I’m okay,” he said, more for himself than for them. He looked around at his situation, searching the dark for something familiar.

“I’m coming in,” Bunny said. The rabbit blocked out the light as he entered what Jack determined was a den. How had he not seen it? Could he have been that unfocused? That didn’t make any sense.

He was about to call up to Bunny when a hand touched his shoulder. He froze, his body going completely rigid in response to the contact. His breath hitched as the emptiness fought to retake him, tried to convince him that what he was feeling couldn’t be real. His heart stopped at the feeling of a warm hand sliding from his shoulder over his chest. No, this couldn’t be real. It simply couldn’t be. Though the shadows coiled around him, he still remained frozen. Movement might disturb this mirage, and this certainly had to be a mirage. If it was, he didn’t want to lose it. He didn’t want to be reclaimed by reality.

He hadn’t realized his own hand had betrayed his disbelief and dropped his staff, reaching for the palm on his chest. When his cold fingers ran across the familiar warm ones, he released the breath he had been holding in a short gasp. His hand tightened around the warmth, refusing to let go. The hand he was holding tightened in response. “Jack,” the owner of the hand spoke softly. The sound of his voice made Jack gasp for air again, a smile fighting its way across his lips as tears flowed freely.

And just like that, the hollowness was gone.

 

“I’ll just leave you two alone,” Sera said, crawling past them to meet the kangaroo. They heard what sounded like two people grappling before she grumbled to the rabbit, “Don’t smother me. I’m bruised, here.” After that, they exited the den.

Pitch grasped Jack’s cold hand, reaching up to cup the boy’s cheek. He felt frozen tears on his Guardian’s face, coupled with a smile that Pitch wished he could see. Still in the recovery process, his night vision wasn’t quite up to par. For now, he just grinned thinking about the winter spirit’s smile. His chest felt like it was about to cave when Jack’s hand covered Pitch’s palm. He thought he’d never feel those hands again, and that notion only made him want to pull Jack closer. His whole body ached, yet all he could think about was getting the boy closer. But they were silent and stayed like that for a long while, content just to hold each other’s hands while drinking in each other’s presence.

“You have no idea,” Jack’s cracked voice finally broke the silence, “how badly I want to punch you right now.”

“Well,” Pitch uttered, “thank you for showing restraint. I’m not sure I could retaliate properly.”

The boy responded with a brief combination of laughter and crying. “When Rin disappeared, I thought you were dead.” Jack sniffled, starting to sound slightly irritated. However, the Nightmare King could also hear the joy overwhelming the winter spirit. “I thought I lost you.”

“You almost did,” Pitch responded. There was a pause before Jack pulled his hand free of Pitch’s. A moment later, Pitch was getting slugged in the shoulder. Though peeved, he was amazed at Jack’s accuracy. “Ow! Excuse me!”

“You’re not excused. You should’ve let me stay with you,” Jack retorted, his voice breaking. Pitch could feel tears freezing in their tracks as they coursed over Jack’s cheeks. The boy moved fast, faster than Pitch was able to follow. One moment Pitch had his hand on Jack’s face and in the next, the boy was carefully leaning over him and kissing him hard on the lips. The part of Pitch that was irked at having been punched dissipated, and he found himself savoring the taste of Jack Frost. He threaded his fingers through Jack’s hair, his other hand on the side of the boy’s neck as they kissed. The tears on Jack’s face made Pitch’s breath hitch and his heart stop. The knowledge of Jack’s pain hurt him, but he had his Guardian now. He wasn’t going to let him go. When Jack pulled back, he whispered, “Don’t make me leave you again.”

“If you insist,” Pitch responded.

“I do insist. You bet your ass I insist.” With that, Jack’s hands clasped the sides of Pitch’s face and they were kissing again. Despite the pain and the ache, Pitch loved it. He loved every minute of having his Jack touching him and holding him and reassuring both of them that this was real. They weren’t imagining it. They were both very much alive.

They didn’t stop until North called into the den, “Everything alright down there?”

Instead of getting annoyed like Pitch, Jack chuckled at the interruption. He called back, “Yeah, I’m fine. He’s still incapacitated, so I’ll be staying here for a while. Meet up with you as soon as I can.”

“I am not incapacitated,” Pitch protested.

“Shut up. Yes you are,” Jack retorted.

“Says you.”

“Damn right, says me.”

“I trust that when you’re powerful enough, you two can teleport out of here?” Sera asked, drawing their attention back to the surface. “I’d very much like to take my hatchet back.”

“Take it,” Pitch responded this time. When she pulled the tool from the den, the orifice closed and left the two alone in the dark.

“Alright,” Jack said, reaching for his mended staff. Pitch heard frost begin to crackle as the boy lined the walls with patterns, the ice glowing slightly and creating enough light as it responded to Jack’s magic. Pitch could see an outline of the boy as he set his staff back down and started to reach for Pitch’s torso. “Where are the wounds?”

“Give me your hands,” Pitch said. Jack did so, and Pitch placed the boy’s palms on the entry wound in his back and the exit wound in his abdomen. “There.”

“You were impaled?!” Jack nearly shouted. Now that the den was closed, his voice echoed slightly and hurt Pitch’s head.

“I suppose I was,” Pitch answered.

“Goddammit, Pitch,” Jack grumbled as he layered Pitch’s wounds in ice. Pitch sighed gratefully at the relief and numbness that followed. He was at peace until Jack fired, “You didn’t even give me the chance to say it back.”

Pitch knew exactly what the boy was talking about in spite of his vagueness. “I already knew how you felt,” Pitch remarked, exasperated.

“I don’t care!” Pitch thought he was about to get punched again, but instead received another kiss. That he wouldn’t complain about. It was tender, not hard at all like before. The gentleness made him groan when Jack pulled back again. That changed when the boy murmured, “I love you.”

There was a moment where Pitch froze, unsure if he’d actually heard. Somehow, it still struck him hard that Jack actually loved him. Jack loved him. He’d said so aloud. Pitch’s grin returned, and he found himself responding with confidence, “I love you too, you fool.” He meant it, too. He’d been so afraid to admit it that he’d refrained from telling Jack until he was certain he might not get the opportunity to do so ever again. How could he not mean it?

“You’d better!” was Jack’s petulant response.

“Shut up and lie down here with me,” Pitch ordered. He wanted to be irritated with the boy, but he couldn’t. He was too busy beaming as Jack slid behind him and wrapped his arms around Pitch’s chest. The coolness of Jack’s body pressing against his back further relaxed the achy Boogeyman.

“How long will it take you to heal?” Jack asked as he settled in around Pitch.

“Maybe a few more days. Definitely no more than a week if I actually get to sleep,” he responded. There was a pause before Jack hmphed. “What are you thinking?”

“That we might be able to get back to the way things used to be.”

“You mean before the attacks?” Pitch felt Jack nod against his neck. “I suppose so. Does this mean I get to kidnap you for another month?”

“Winter is coming. I need to start icing the roads in some countries.”

“The way you phrase that doesn’t seem very Guardian-like.”

“Well, what do you plan on doing, Nightmare King?”

“What I do best, of course.” They both smiled at the idea of normalcy. Well . . . what they had once considered normal, that is.

Of course, things wouldn’t be exactly the same. Not for Pitch, anyway. He never liked change. However, the changes that involved Jack Frost tended to be bearable bordering on pleasant. He was willing to say that he had his daughter back because of Jack. He had many things he hadn’t thought he’d ever achieve thanks to Jack. He sighed, pulling the boy by the arms and forcing him closer. Jack chuckled, his cool breath chilling the back of Pitch’s scalp. The Nightmare King placed a gray hand on one of Jack’s pale ones. The boy returned the gesture, twining his fingers through Pitch’s. Jack whispered, “For once, I get to protect you.”

Pitch’s smile widened. “You do that already.”

Jack snorted. “You think so?”

“I know so.” He pulled Jack’s hand to his lips and kissed it. He repeated a little softer, “I know so.” 

And for the first time, Pitch was willing to admit to himself that he was happy. Not just satisfied, not just content. He had someone he both loved and trusted, who loved and trusted him in return. Pitch Black was happy. With a Guardian, no less. Tightening the hold he had on Jack’s hand, he knew he wouldn’t have it any other way.



“Are we actually going to see you again?” Bunny asked Sera. The others had already returned to the Warren, but he didn’t feel right leaving her so quickly.

Sera finished strapping her dagger back in its place before looking up at the gray skies. Then she gazed solemnly at the ruined rainforest. “I have some work to do.”

“Some?” he asked. She pinned him with a gimlet stare before letting her grin show.

“Once everything’s back in order, I’ll try to join the modern world. Good enough answer? You’re not gonna stalk me, are you?”

“Don’t think Pitch is the only one capable of lurking in the shadows.” They both smiled.

They paused as they stared at one another. She said, “I’ll see you around, then, rabbit.” She got ready to walk away, but found herself stopping. Without warning, she turned and threw her arms around his neck. He returned the embrace, careful to avoid the areas on her torso where she was still incredibly sore. As she held him, she whispered, “I still hate you.”

“You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t,” he murmured back. When she pulled away and started walking away, he watched her. His grin widened as he did so.

His aster was showing in her hair, now. And the first butterfly he’d seen in the jungle had landed on her shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> Is everyone okay? Can we breathe again? Maybe just a sigh?
> 
> God, ya'll scared me. I got a couple comments telling me of how the last update managed to cause physical pain. I mean, feels are fine. Burnt tongues and sore gums really suck, though. Sorry, I'm worried.
> 
> Anyway, last update is tomorrow. After that, I will be starting a new series geared towards filling requests. I will consider any and all requests. There is never a bad time to request something. Most of the time, I'm just excited people talk to me about my stuff. I will also be moving on to some AUs. They could be a part of another series, just because I'd like to keep them separate from the requests I fill. I fully intend to gift requests to the people who ask for them.
> 
> Remember, you can still ask the characters questions on my tumblr (twofacedpsycho.tumblr.com). Even Rin can be asked things, though he's quite busy being dead now.
> 
> LITTLE REMINDER: I like my characters dead or dying and my readers living and somewhat healthy, so please drink responsibly. 
> 
> Tea, I mean. Beer is good too. Shut up Alex.


End file.
